22 Jan
2013
22 Jan
'13
3:12 a.m.
A good friend has a well preserved IBM 3430 tape drive, originally
connected to an IMPI AS/400, and we are now hopeful that it could be
reconnected to a slightly more modern AS/400, still IMPI and still
SPD. This would give us a local 9-track tape capability:
here are some pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/118247290269860741639/IBM3430TapeDrive#5606377…
What we are particularly interested to learn is whether we have the
"master" tape drive, known as a A01 unit (that includes the controller
electronics) or the tape-drive-only unit known as the B01 variant.
We added a picture today (see very last picture) of the main
controller electronics cage that shows several plug-in cards, is
anyone familiar with these and can identify the variant by sight? we
searched the entire machine looking for some designation that showed
the model variant without success. So we assume it comes down to the
controller cage, and we see empty slots so we wonder if it is the B01
variant.
22 Jan
22 Jan
4:10 a.m.
I dont know whether it will help (I'm an old IBM DOS operator) but in the
old days the "master" tape drive would have a physical address like
'180' or
'280', the 1 or 2 designating the channel number, the 8 meaning "tape
drive"
and '0' master. Other tape drives would be called 181, 182, etc.
With luck, you will find a sticker on the tape drive saying 180 or 181
/NIco
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nigel Williams" <nigel.d.williams at gmail.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 12:12 PM
Subject: Help with an IBM 3430 tape drive
A good friend has a well preserved IBM 3430 tape drive,
originally
connected to an IMPI AS/400, and we are now hopeful that it could be
reconnected to a slightly more modern AS/400, still IMPI and still
SPD. This would give us a local 9-track tape capability:
here are some pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/118247290269860741639/IBM3430TapeDrive#5606377…
What we are particularly interested to learn is whether we have the
"master" tape drive, known as a A01 unit (that includes the controller
electronics) or the tape-drive-only unit known as the B01 variant.
We added a picture today (see very last picture) of the main
controller electronics cage that shows several plug-in cards, is
anyone familiar with these and can identify the variant by sight? we
searched the entire machine looking for some designation that showed
the model variant without success. So we assume it comes down to the
controller cage, and we see empty slots so we wonder if it is the B01
variant.
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4:45 a.m.
I suspect it is an "A" drive as it has a pair of BUS and TAG sockets and
normally on Mainframe channels only the "A" type devices have these, and
then the "B" drives use some other kind of cable to tie into the head of
string but this may not be true for 3430 drives.
However there should also be some jumpers to set the channel address and I
can't see those any where, so perhaps 3430 are daisy changed alog the
channel...
On 22 January 2013 11:12, Nigel Williams <nigel.d.williams at gmail.com> wrote:
A good friend has a well preserved IBM 3430 tape
drive, originally
connected to an IMPI AS/400, and we are now hopeful that it could be
reconnected to a slightly more modern AS/400, still IMPI and still
SPD. This would give us a local 9-track tape capability:
here are some pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/118247290269860741639/IBM3430TapeDrive#5606377…
What we are particularly interested to learn is whether we have the
"master" tape drive, known as a A01 unit (that includes the controller
electronics) or the tape-drive-only unit known as the B01 variant.
We added a picture today (see very last picture) of the main
controller electronics cage that shows several plug-in cards, is
anyone familiar with these and can identify the variant by sight? we
searched the entire machine looking for some designation that showed
the model variant without success. So we assume it comes down to the
controller cage, and we see empty slots so we wonder if it is the B01
variant.
4:53 a.m.
According to:-
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/IBM-ProdAnn/3430.pdf
only the "A" drive has power, the "B" is powered from the
"A" so it looks
very likely that you have an "A" unit.
On 22 January 2013 12:45, Dave Wade <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> wrote:
I suspect it is an "A" drive as it has a
pair of BUS and TAG sockets and
normally on Mainframe channels only the "A" type devices have these, and
then the "B" drives use some other kind of cable to tie into the head of
string but this may not be true for 3430 drives.
However there should also be some jumpers to set the channel address and I
can't see those any where, so perhaps 3430 are daisy changed alog the
channel...
On 22 January 2013 11:12, Nigel Williams <nigel.d.williams at gmail.com>wrote:
A good friend has a well preserved IBM 3430 tape
drive, originally
connected to an IMPI AS/400, and we are now hopeful that it could be
reconnected to a slightly more modern AS/400, still IMPI and still
SPD. This would give us a local 9-track tape capability:
here are some pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/118247290269860741639/IBM3430TapeDrive#5606377…
What we are particularly interested to learn is whether we have the
"master" tape drive, known as a A01 unit (that includes the controller
electronics) or the tape-drive-only unit known as the B01 variant.
We added a picture today (see very last picture) of the main
controller electronics cage that shows several plug-in cards, is
anyone familiar with these and can identify the variant by sight? we
searched the entire machine looking for some designation that showed
the model variant without success. So we assume it comes down to the
controller cage, and we see empty slots so we wonder if it is the B01
variant.
9:36 a.m.
I think on the AS/400 there is only a single cable at least for the
3410, and not bus / tag. If this was hooked to a mainframe with bus /
tag, you won't get it hooked to an AS/400 with the same electronics.
Also you have a mix of 370 and 390 cables, there are frequently issues
with which you use where. I think you had to have 370 cables between
the controller and the device, but the blue cables would work for the
channels.
I'm interested in that you do have what looks to be bus / tag
termination. However photo of the connector in the device has only one
connector visible with power cabling blocking the view of the bottom of
the channel connector. If there are bus / tag connectors below then I'm
a bit confused about what you have given that the ones we had only had
one cable.
I bought a lot of equipment at one time and snagged one off of an AS/400
before I found out it didn't do mainframe, and at least for the 3410 is
a single cable affair.
the 3430 we had at a facility I worked at was a single unit and had to
be an A unit, but I never looked into the box to know what it looked like.
jim
On 1/22/2013 4:53 AM, Dave Wade wrote:
According to:-
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/IBM-ProdAnn/3430.pdf
only the "A" drive has power, the "B" is powered from the
"A" so it looks
very likely that you have an "A" unit.
On 22 January 2013 12:45, Dave Wade <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> wrote:
I suspect it is an "A" drive as it has
a pair of BUS and TAG sockets and
normally on Mainframe channels only the "A" type devices have these, and
then the "B" drives use some other kind of cable to tie into the head of
string but this may not be true for 3430 drives.
However there should also be some jumpers to set the channel address and I
can't see those any where, so perhaps 3430 are daisy changed alog the
channel...
On 22 January 2013 11:12, Nigel Williams <nigel.d.williams at gmail.com>wrote:
A good friend has a well preserved IBM 3430 tape
drive, originally
connected to an IMPI AS/400, and we are now hopeful that it could be
reconnected to a slightly more modern AS/400, still IMPI and still
SPD. This would give us a local 9-track tape capability:
here are some pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/118247290269860741639/IBM3430TapeDrive#5606377…
What we are particularly interested to learn is whether we have the
"master" tape drive, known as a A01 unit (that includes the controller
electronics) or the tape-drive-only unit known as the B01 variant.
We added a picture today (see very last picture) of the main
controller electronics cage that shows several plug-in cards, is
anyone familiar with these and can identify the variant by sight? we
searched the entire machine looking for some designation that showed
the model variant without success. So we assume it comes down to the
controller cage, and we see empty slots so we wonder if it is the B01
variant.
11:28 p.m.
Jim,
Some of the AS/400 manuals show how to connect the drive. The small
connector with the trailing bus and tag leads goes in the AS/400 and the
bus and tag go to the drive. The manuals also suggest there should be a
grey and a blue bus/tag cable.
Dave
G4UGM
On Jan 23, 2013 6:15 AM, "jim s" <jwsmail at jwsss.com> wrote:
I think on the AS/400 there is only a single cable at
least for the 3410,
and not bus / tag. If this was hooked to a mainframe with bus / tag, you
won't get it hooked to an AS/400 with the same electronics.
Also you have a mix of 370 and 390 cables, there are frequently issues
with which you use where. I think you had to have 370 cables between the
controller and the device, but the blue cables would work for the channels.
I'm interested in that you do have what looks to be bus / tag termination.
However photo of the connector in the device has only one connector
visible with power cabling blocking the view of the bottom of the channel
connector. If there are bus / tag connectors below then I'm a bit confused
about what you have given that the ones we had only had one cable.
I bought a lot of equipment at one time and snagged one off of an AS/400
before I found out it didn't do mainframe, and at least for the 3410 is a
single cable affair.
the 3430 we had at a facility I worked at was a single unit and had to be
an A unit, but I never looked into the box to know what it looked like.
jim
On 1/22/2013 4:53 AM, Dave Wade wrote:
According to:-
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-**hist/IBM-ProdAnn/3430.pdf<http://ed-thelen.o…
only the "A" drive has power, the "B" is powered from the
"A" so it looks
very likely that you have an "A" unit.
On 22 January 2013 12:45, Dave Wade <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> wrote:
I suspect it is an "A" drive as it has a pair of BUS and TAG sockets and
normally on Mainframe channels only the
"A" type devices have these, and
then the "B" drives use some other kind of cable to tie into the head of
string but this may not be true for 3430 drives.
However there should also be some jumpers to set the channel address and
I
can't see those any where, so perhaps 3430 are daisy changed alog the
channel...
On 22 January 2013 11:12, Nigel Williams <nigel.d.williams at gmail.com>**
wrote:
A good friend has a well preserved IBM 3430 tape drive, originally
connected to an IMPI AS/400, and we are now
hopeful that it could be
reconnected to a slightly more modern AS/400, still IMPI and still
SPD. This would give us a local 9-track tape capability:
here are some pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/**118247290269860741639/**
IBM3430TapeDrive#**5606377893749621362<https://picasaweb.google.com/1182…
What we are particularly interested to learn is whether we have the
"master" tape drive, known as a A01 unit (that includes the controller
electronics) or the tape-drive-only unit known as the B01 variant.
We added a picture today (see very last picture) of the main
controller electronics cage that shows several plug-in cards, is
anyone familiar with these and can identify the variant by sight? we
searched the entire machine looking for some designation that showed
the model variant without success. So we assume it comes down to the
controller cage, and we see empty slots so we wonder if it is the B01
variant.
23 Jan
23 Jan
1:09 p.m.
We have positive identification! we do have an A01 variant of the IBM
3430, so it is functional as a standalone unit.
We were sent a snippet of an IBM parts catalogue (thanks to Herman
from The Netherlands) for the 3430 and it clearly shows
the
differences between A01 and B01 units:
1. The most obvious indication(!) is the front-panel on the top-right
of the unit. The A01 has 6 switches and several extra indicator
lights, whereas the B01 has just 4 switches and fewer lights. We will
get some pictures onto the gallery that will make this description
easier to interpret - the A01 operator panel appearance is busy, the
B01 operator panel appears minimalist.
2. As has been noted in this thread, the 3430 is a bus/tag peripheral.
As it happens the B01 variants are connected via specific flat white
ribbon cables to allow reduced/simpler cabling - this is highlighted
in the 3430 brochure as a positive selling point since underfloor
cabling was not required for the additional B01 units. Only the A01
has the bulky bus/tag sockets to connect to the host system.
3. The last picture in our picture gallery showing the large box of
circuit cards (that incidentally has two prominent fans mounted
directly on top - they are quite noticeable when you remove the main
front cover) - this is only fitted to the A01 and holds the controller
electronics shared among the entire daisy-chain of tape drives. This
space is empty on the B01 as it relies on the controller from the A01.
On opening a B01 someone would be struck by how empty the space under
the tape drive appears.
Once these differences are known then it explains why there are no
designations on the unit, it is quite easy to tell them apart with
this information.
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6 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com -
jwsmail＠jwsss.com -
nico＠farumdata.dk -
nigel.d.williams＠gmail.com